For shadow dwelling women

July 2, 2017

Meadow & Fawn

Alexis, the woman behind Meadow & Fawn, is a woman of many talents: She is a painter, sculptor and jeweler. With her hands, Alexis is able to create tiny habitats, occupied by enchanted creatures. The fawns and foxes, owls and mushrooms the Southern Californian artists paints or sculpts out of clay may be rather small in scale, but they are great in detail.

I find myself most fascinated by the sceneries created by Alexis. They kind of remind me of these old taxidermy dioramas you can find in museums of natural history, except Alexis’ are a lot tinier and no animals had to die in the making. Maybe it’s the romanticised view of nature, for all of Alexis little animal creatures seem so at peace and in harmony with their surroundings.

Alexis uses either “shadowboxes” or glass domes for her sceneries:

As you can see, Alexis, though sticking to the correct anatomy when sculpting animal figurines, does not necessarily conform to realistic proportions regarding the size of her objects. Therefore you will find a fox looking up to some elegantly curved mushroons, or a fawn sleeping next to what must be gigantic fly amanitas. The worlds created by Alexis are inspired by nature, yet at the same time they defy the rules of nature.

Apart from adorable animal totem pendants, Alexis also creates lockets – beautiful little keepsakes that hold secret little treasures. The lockets are adorned with a little painting on the outside, and contain a minuscule scenery on the inside. Oftentimes, real botanicals, such as moss or lichen, are usedin the making. I find there is a certain intimate feel to these lockets, like you are carrying around a secret little fairy tale world nobody knows about.

All creations by Meadow and Fawn are handmade and one-of-a-kind. I suggest you go to Alexis’ website and take some time to browse through the whole portfolio. Though she updates her shop on a regular basis, her creations sell out fast, which is why I highly recommend either subscribing to her newsletter or following her on Instagram.